"I was on my own, out in one of the gnarliest neighbourhoods. You’re scared, thinking, 'How do I get out of here?'" How a song about living in a rat-infested squat helped turn Green Day into one of the world's biggest bands

Green Day in New York in 1994.

There’s a place that’s on 7th Street and Peralta in West Oakland, just by the BART railway station, where Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt lived in 1989.

To describe this warehouse spot as palatial and well-appointed would be stretching the truth just a little bit. The abandoned building was dilapidated as fuck, to put it kindly, and a place where these two teenagers – then in a band called Sweet Children – and a gang of "punks, runaways and artists" called home. It was certainly different to the Armstrong family home located some 20 miles away in Rodeo, California.

“It was rat-infested and in a really fucked-up neighbourhood, with a lot of crazy punks and friends,” Armstrong told Rolling Stone Australia. “I was paying $50 a month for rent, which was great, because, being in a band, you got paid a couple hundred bucks here and there — so it was easy to pay for rent, eat Top Ramen, and buy weed. It was an eye-opening experience.”